Mr Charles Aniagwu, (Centre), Chief Press Secretary to Delta State Governor, Appearing at the FRONTLINE, a Programme of Delta Online Publishers Forum, DPPF, Mr. Emmanuel Enebeli (Left), Chairman, DOPF, Mr. Nelson Egware, (Right), Aide to Okowa.
By Jennifer Outya and Sunday Jerry
ASABA/Nigeria: The Delta State government had revealed that most ongoing projects in the state at the assumption of this present administration were not financed by the past administration, leading to the contractors abandoning the jobs without completion.
This was part of the revelation of the Chief press secretary to Delta state governor, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 when he featured on FRONTLINE, an interactive programme of the Delta Online Publishers Forum, (DOPF).
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, who was a guest of the programme to explain what qualifies Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to contest the 2019 election, despite the various criticism of under performance, said the present administration has passed all the necessary tests and done all he needed to do for the people of Delta state to qualify him for election in the 2019.
Aniagwu, pointed out that at the resumption of the Okowa’s government, most of the major jobs awarded to contractors were not financed, but the contractors went to site to start work for the good of the state, despite that they were not paid.
“When we came on board we said we will take care of roads in all the local government areas of the state. Before we came on board, the Ughelli-Asaba contractor was not paid. The Okpanam road, a penny was not paid before we came on board.” He stressed.
The Governor Okowa’s media manager, who was grilled by the online media gurus, spoke on several projects embarked upon by the state government which are part of the promises made by the state governor during the inception of the government on May 29, 2015.
He said election is like an individual wanting to gain admission into the university, stating that Governor Okowa has passed all the tests for promotion to second term in the 2019 general elections.
He said the governor deserved the second term having scored excellence in all the examinations before him, saying the governor has been able to prove his programmes right and they have impacted positively on the lives of the people of the state.
Aniagwu said: “He brought out reforms in various sectors and he has completed them creditably well. Have created jobs, yes, we have created jobs. We have created platforms to make people create and get jobs. We have directly created 6000 people in our job creation scheme. We are not doing it for political reasons.
“We have taken development to the creeks and the people are happy and willing to support the government. A number of youths have gone into agriculture. In a few weeks from now, we are going to launch our rice.
“We have built a number of schools. We took advantage of the UBEC law, we have paid our counterpart funds and renewed our primary schools across the state. The storm drainage is part of our efforts to make the state capital take a new look.
“Our roads are connecting to the rural communities. At the end of this administration, we are going to surpass the expectation of the people of Delta state. We have passed our examinations and garnered good grades for admission to second term. We are quite confident that the people of Delta state will vote for us. We are even looking at 5/5 in the vote for Governor Okowa.”
“We have done a number of roads. We have linked local governments to each other by roads. Maryam Babangidda Way, at the end of its completion, will be like Summit Road. In all honesty, we do not want to play politics with projects. This is why we say we need time to consolidate on what we are doing.”
When asked on the allegation that only members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state are being empowered by the state government, Aniagwu denied saying the people the state government engages in the job creation scheme are not based on politics.
He said the process involves going to the internet and filling the form which anybody could fill, arguing that “we do not use politics to select the people. That process is not politicized,” adding that the chief job creation officer, Professor Eric Eboh, is not a politician.
He said the agricultural programme, skills acquisition programmes and health schemes have nothing to do with politics, noting: “So our empowerment scheme is not one sided, not only PDP members are engaged.”
